What is Embedded Lockdown Manager

Question

Embedded Lockdown Manager. I've just installed an ssd 240 GB drive to my system running win 8.1 and everything is fine but I've just noticed Embedded Lockdown Manager in my programs. I didn't install it and have never seen it before. It also says that it was created 29/9/2014 but I've only just installed the new ssd 18/10/2014 keeping nothing from my old drive except the drive itself after formatting it. As it been installed with some other software or is it some sort of update? Or is it something that was installed from the new SSD. I’ve never heard of this until I noticed it this morning and from what I can find on the web I can’t make head nor tales of it. Do I need it? Is it an update from Microsoft or was it installed with some other software? Many thanks Ugly Pete

Solution

Its definitely the name of an official windows component, though it belongs on windows embedded, not the regular version most people should be using.

Its not on my system, so I'd suspect its not something installed by default, and its probably not part of your SSD drivers.

I'd be a bit weary of this, but without more information, its pretty hard to tell if its just installed cause its needed by something else, or its a sneaky bit of malware.

The comments probably covered what I missed - that its a useful bit of software, which while unrelated to your SSD, seems to let you control various security and systems options. As such, I'd guess something else pulled it in. However, it is still not likely to be related to your SSD

Comments

[tombull89]

It's not part of the SSD software - we have it on our 8.1 machines with non-SSD drives. I haven't noticed it on non-domain machines.

[Matthew Champion]

It's worth pointing out that, while it seems to be only designed to be used with Windows Embedded, it can also be found on other versions of Windows. "The ELM update will be available via DLC for Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry as well as for the following platforms: Windows 7, Windows 8.1 Pro, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012 R2". (The relevant text can be found under the "Supported platforms" section.)

[Thalys]

Ahh. Those are probably things that I was missing. So, probably legit.